Sunday, July 24, 2011

The thing I love most about cooking is improvising. Although I own 89+ cookbooks, I rarely follow a recipe. The fun, for me, is in 'winging it.' Doing my own thing.

Baking isn't usually as much fun. You've got to stick to the recipe or you risk ruining your cake. What fun is that?

That's what I love about this recipe. Although you do need to follow the basic formula, this recipe just invites improvising! My current favorite combination of fruit is 2 granny smith apples, 2 pears, and 1 cup each of blueberries and cherries. But that'll change as the seasons do. When stone fruit is in season, I can't get enough of fresh peach and blueberry crisp.

Super Crispy Fruit Crisp This is a basic formula which you can use with lots of different combinations of fruits. I mostly use fresh seasonal fruit but I've also had really good results with frozen cranberries,cherries, and blueberries. My favorite combinations:

pears, apples, and cranberries

pears, apples, blueberries, and cherries

peaches, nectarines, and blueberries

apples (granny smith or any other firm favorites) and dried cherries

strawberries, rhubarb, and apples

plums and apples

peaches, apples, and cherries

FRUIT
about 6 cups of your favorite fruit, pitted, peeled and sliced as necessary
2 tablespoons whole wheat flour
juice of half a lemon
1-2 tablespoons sugar, optional, if the fruit is tart or if you like a sweeter crisp

In a very large mixing bowl, combine the coconut oil, brown sugar, oatmeal, and nuts. Crumble the mixture with your fingers to make a coarse crumb. (This is my favorite part. I love how the grainy sugar feels against my hands.)

Scatter the topping evenly over the fruit. Bake for about an hour, till the top is beginning to brown.

Serve warm or cool completely before covering with foil and refrigerating for up to three days. If you are refrigerating it, bring it back to room temperature before serving.

I think this is actually a great example of how you -can- improvise in baking! Most people see it as being strict, but it's just a matter of minding your ratios. There's really tons of room for experimentation. :)

This looks very good - I've only every used a mix of 2 fruit, but I'll try this multi-mix as I always have fruit around that needs to be used up. From what it looks like in the pictures, you mixed fresh and frozen fruit - does that influence the amount of liquid you'll get when you dig underneath the crispy surface, i.e. will there be more liquid?

Follow by Email

About

Hi! I'm Rivki Locker, an ordinary person who lives a harried, busy life like you do. I created this blog to share my ideas about how to eat healthy without spending all day shopping, eating, cooking, and measuring portions.